Word.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' Matthew 4:1-4

This scripture is simple right? Obviously, if we meditate on God’s word, God will satisfy our hunger. It’s a metaphor, right? Because it’s a metaphor we can’t take it literally. I mean we still have bills to pay, children to feed, mortgages to pay all while trying to maintain relationships, go to church, and actively participate in our ministry to the kids. We don’t have time to sift through the philosophy and the allegory in the Bible. Why can’t the Bible just give us the straight truth? Before we dismiss this passage as a metaphor, let’s break it down.

So Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted. This is before Jesus starts His ministry. This is after His baptism, but before choosing the 12 disciples. Jesus’ ministry could be derailed before it begins. Then he fasted for 40 days and nights. Which made Him hungry (duh?). So far, the Bible is very literal and very factual…no metaphors yet.

Then Satan came to Jesus and tempted him with what His body craved: food. Satan challenges His status as the Son of God (which was confirmed in His baptism “This is my Son…Matthew 3:17), challenged His power over the earth, and tempted Him.

Then Jesus responds with a metaphor…right? Wrong. This portion is literal as well. Jesus is quoting a verse from the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3. The Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land and God is reminding of His commands that He done for them.

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Deuteronomy 8:2-4

God provided manna when the Israelites needed food. Manna literally means, “What is it?” Manna was provided every morning. They were told not to store it or it would spoil and maggots would consume it. Before the Sabbath though, manna would change its consistency and would last for 2 days. God provided food even when there was no food available.

That’s what Jesus is saying. He’s not saying that if we fill our spiritual hunger we will forget about our physical hunger. His message is simple, if we rely on God, He will take care of our needs. Our God is so powerful, that with a word from His mouth, our hunger can be satisfied. Even in our own personal deserts, when we don’t see a solution around, He can fill our needs.


The difference between the Bible and any other book is that it is willing to be put to the test. Challenge it. Read through it. Take it serious! This is the word of God to humanity. It’s a story of His love for us. It’s the same love that you show to the kids you minister to every week. Words cannot express how fortunate we feel that we get to share life experiences with you. We are blessed to have you and look forward to all the experiences that are to come in the ministry God has entrusted us all with. Thank you for all that you do.




Announcements

Be sure to check your emails for an evite for our Team Time Out and please remember to RSVP. We're hosting a Pie & Cider Night at Surprise Park on November 15, you don't want to miss out!

We Belong to God

It never fails. Whenever I’m having a bad day, things always seem to go from bad to worse. It seems that I struggle with my own mortality and my own frailty at the same time that I struggle with my spirituality. My problem is not my faith in God; my problem seems to fall into my own realization that I am a horrible mess. This realization never comes on my own; it always comes from the constant reminder of what a horrible man that I am.

Paul struggled with this and wrote about it in Romans 7. If you read through the first 7 chapters of Romans, Paul addresses God’s wrath against wickedness, judgment, Jewish law, God’s faithfulness in spite of our lack of righteousness, our death through sin, and how we struggle with sin ending with the phrase, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Whenever I fall and fail I always feel like Paul in Romans 7:21-24.

“So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.”

Paul is a very divided man and illustrates how divided we are fighting between our sinful nature and our constant drive to become more like Jesus. If this were the end of Paul’s rant, we would be left pessimistic and empty. He would affirm our feelings without giving us any hope for the future.

Sometimes when we read the Bible, we follow a paragraph or a chapter and then we set the Bible down. When the Bible was written it was formed as a narrative that was not divided. Ideas were not broken into chapters. The Bible continues on into itself. It is not simply a narrative about God; it is a narrative from God about us. About our humanity, our relationship to him, our past, our present, and our future. We must read the Bible in context. When we continue reading, we will fall into the message that God has for us. Let’s continue on in the passage. (Romans 7:24-8:2)

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.“

When we are feeling down and beat up and attacked because of our past mistakes that haunt our present day reality, we can thrive under the passage of Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

There is a phrase that says, “When the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future.” While its cute, I think it should be rephrased. “When the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of your future”. You are a child of God and nothing will separate you from Him. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 8:38-39. Thank you for all that you do. We appreciate your ministry and remember that it is noticed by God, and is life-changing for the kids whose lives you are impacting.


Announcements

Be sure to check your emails for an evite for our Team Time Out and please remember to RSVP. We're hosting a Pie & Cider Night at Surprise Park on November 15, you don't want to miss out!

Modern Day Disciple

During our echo weekends we are reminded of the commission that Jesus gave to us. Our job as Christians is to go into the entire world and preach the gospel. We are meant to be missionaries. As a missionary, we can share Jesus with people in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and social situations. Knowing this, I think we should take a look at the disciples (the first missionaries) shortly after we left them in our last series.

Peter, who was once filled with fear, suddenly preaches to 3,000 people and testifies about what Jesus had done for him. After that, Peter and John are walking to the temple and see a man who could not walk. The man asked for change and Peter and John obliged him through the power of God. The man began walking and leaping and praising God. Peter and John began to preach and then were thrown into prison. Then, they are brought before the same guys that just put Jesus to death!

Peter, who denied Jesus stands up for his faith even against certain death. Listen to what Peter said to them in Acts 4:8-13. “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit said to them: ‘Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is ‘the stone that the builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

So the council meets and they decide that they can’t put the disciples to death, everyone saw them heal the man. The man who is healed is also standing next to Peter and John, so they decide to try to stop Peter and John. Here’s what they said in Acts 4:17-20

“'But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must
warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.’ Then they called them
in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s
sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we
have seen and heard.'"

We don’t have all the answers about our faith. There are atheists out there that make a living exploiting the fact that our belief system is based on a man who rose from the dead. We have to take that in faith. However, even the most educated atheist in the world cannot compete with what you have seen, what you have heard, and what you have experienced.

When you become a missionary in your workplace, your community, and among your friends, you are not telling them all the answers. You are simply telling them what you have experienced and what God has done in your life. When the elders saw that Peter and John were unschooled, but they spoke with such authority, they realized they had been with Jesus. When you spend time with Jesus it is noticeable. This week, spend some time talking with the God who loves you and made you. Your time with Him will influence everyone around you. It will make an impact, especially to the kids that we have the privilege of ministering to every weekend. Thank you for all that you do.


Announcements:

• 12 Disciples courtyard event is will be this weekend in celebrating our Unusual Suspects and Just Like Me series. Bring your cameras to snap some pics :)
  
• 12 STAMPS - We will be giving 1 stamp on stamp books for every Disciple that the children can remember, for a possible total of 12, in addition to their weekly stamps.
  
• CHRISTMAS PLAY : Practice is this Saturday night during the Fusion/Jelevate service at 5:30. This will be the last weekend that kids can sign up to be part of the choir, so hurry to sign your children up!